#14 - Professor: Members of most species are able to

[Administrator]

Complete Question Explanation

Must Be True—SN. The correct answer choice is (D)

The professor states that, while most species are able to communicate to a degree, not all communication can be considered language. The professor further states that the human communication system is a language and in fact is a trait which makes us human. The student responds to the professor’s statements by asking the professor how he can know that the communication systems of songbirds, dolphins, honeybees and apes are not languages. As the professor has not asserted that these communications systems are or are not languages, the student has misinterpreted the professor’s statements to somehow imply that the professor does not believe the communication systems of these animals are languages. Look for an answer that addresses this misinterpretation.

Answer Choice (A): In fact, the student has actually interpreted the professor’s remarks to mean that different species, at least in the instance of language, can not have similar defining traits.

Answer Choice (B): Neither the student nor the professor mentions any human trait other than language. That the student has interpreted the professor’s remarks as applying to every human trait goes far beyond the scope of the stimulus.

Answer Choice (C): The professor has stated that not all forms of communication are language, something that the student acknowledges and agrees with. Neither maintains that not all languages are used to communicate, and the student has certainly not interpreted the professor’s remarks to have said so.


Answer Choice (D):This is the correct answer choice. The student mistakenly believes that the professor holds the communication of songbirds, dolphins, honeybees and apes to not be language. While the professor did state that our language is a trait that makes us human, he did not state that humans are alone in their possession of language. The student has confused a trait that the professor holds as necessary to being human as a trait that the professor holds as exclusively human.

Answer Choice (E): The student asks about the communication systems of songbirds, dolphins, honeybees and apes amongst their respective species. As the student does not ask about the ability of humans to communicate with these species, it is unlikely that he or she has interpreted the professor’s remarks to mean that humans can not communicate with members of other species.

[yrivers]

Hi,

Could you please provide an explanation for this question? I chose D, the correct answer, but the other options were equally confusing. I wanted to make sure I understood the logical reasoning behind each one for sure. Thank you so much!

Yaesul

[Robert Carroll]

Yaesul,

This question type is Must Be True. Further, it must be based on the student's comments, so it must be based on what the student was thinking. The wrong answers are all out of scope because they add information to what we're sure the student must have been thinking. The professor said that humans use language, but nothing the professor said claimed this was exclusive to humans. The student seems to be confused about this and thinks the professor did say that language is exclusive to humans. This is what makes answer choice (D) correct. The other answers simply involve claims the student would not necessarily have agreed with, based on what we know.

Robert Carroll

[dandelionsroar]

Is answer choice C a mistaken reversal of the first phrase from the Student? Or am I stretching this conditionality thing haha

[Robert Carroll]

dandelion,

Answer choice (C) is not a conditional, so it is not a Mistaken Reversal. It is, however, a different mistake.

Look at what the professor said: not all communication is language. This is not a conditional - the professor is not saying "All this are that" but rather the opposite! So the diagram of the professor's statement would be something like:

communication language

In other words, "some communication is not language."

"Some" statements can be reversed. The reverse would be "some things which are not languages are forms of communication" or some such statement.

Answer choice (C) does not reverse this properly, but says, essentially, "some languages are not forms of communication." This is not accurate.

Of course, that's not why answer choice (C) is wrong. The student's (possibly faulty) interpretation of what the professor said is what's at issue. But the student is not claiming that some languages are not communication, but wondering whether some communication is language - specifically, non-human communication. So the student is understanding the professor's "not all communication is language" to mean "only human communication is language." This is why answer choice (D) is correct.

Robert Carroll

[jackbenimble106]

Good morning!

I understand that the stimulus does not discuss any human traits other than language and that answer choice B goes beyond that scope. However, I am having a difficult time grasping how answer choice B and answer choice D aren't, essentially, saying the same thing. See my paraphrasing below:

B) Every human trait is shared with at least one other species except language.

D) Humans are the only species to use language.

Can someone explain?

[Rachael Wilkenfeld]

Those are two very different statements, Jack.

In answer choice (B), we would need to know about every single human trait, and how humans share it with other animals (or not). Empathy, critical thinking, affection....literally every single trait. We have no information on this based on the stimulus at all. Both speakers are focused on language, and not on other human traits.

Answer choice (D) on the other hand is focused on language, and only language. Since this is a MBT question, we want to focus on what we know for sure based on the stimulus. We can know for sure that the student is replying as if the professor had said that language was exclusive to humans.

Hope that helps!
Rachael